Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,51
he’d read that damn newspaper this morning. ‘But your long-suffering sister is worried sick and...’ he sighed and her pretty, insightful eyes locked with his again ‘...and so was I.’
She was just being kind, he knew that deep down, yet it didn’t stop his silly heart from soaring for a moment that she cared enough to be worried about him.
‘You might have sent word you weren’t coming. I packed a huge lunch and, with the heat, half it is now thoroughly spoiled and wasted.’
‘I never asked you to pack it.’
‘No, of course you didn’t, because that would have involved you making a commitment and we don’t do that, do we? You would much prefer to moan when I haven’t brought enough food when you inevitably turn up and still eat more than your fair share.’
Something he couldn’t deny.
‘Eleanor told me about Miranda.’
‘I’ll wager she did.’ And doubtless rendered him a pathetic, maligned and helpless victim in the process, damn her, when the last person he wanted to be pathetic for was Effie. Even if he was.
‘I think it is only fair, before this conversation progresses any further, that I state here and now I already despise her and think you are probably much better off without her.’ Max braced himself for the inevitable platitudes and pity. ‘Not that I expect you to see that, you silly man. You’re not the least bit ready to see sense yet and I am sure you are much preferring your romantically martyred view of it all.’
‘Martyred?’ That brought him up short. ‘Martyred?’
‘When used as an adjective it means to act in a manner showing affected or exaggerated suffering to evoke sympathy.’
‘I know what it means, Miss Nobody-asked-your-opinion. And you are wrong. I seek nobody’s sympathy!’ The very suggestion was—
‘I am not wrong and you know it.’
‘You have no right to...’ One shapely leg swung over the sill. ‘No! Stop...’ He stood, outraged, his finger pointed like a weapon, feeling much like King Cnut must have felt when faced with the incoming tide, but still in denial it might roll in. ‘I forbid you to climb through that window!’
‘Oops.’ She shrugged and then grinned as her feet hit the parquet. ‘If only you’d bought those dogs you’d threatened, eh, Max? Then you could set them on me for my gross impertinence. Or is this technically trespass?’
He was positively looming over his desk, incensed, but typically his anger did not faze her at all. She sat herself on top of it, uncowed, and stared at him levelly. ‘But let’s not digress from the topic at hand. We were discussing your martyrdom and how you are absolutely convinced that the lily-livered turncoat Miranda you proposed to is so much better off without you now you carry a few scars that you prefer to punish yourself for getting them rather than be furious at her for not loving you enough for them not to matter. That’s the long and short of it, isn’t it?’
She hadn’t loved him enough. He knew that. He’d always known that. Yet he had loved her enough for both of them and her rejection and her revulsion had destroyed all that had remained of his self-esteem in one fell swoop. ‘Get out, Effie, or I swear to God I will throw you out!’
‘She wanted someone titled, rich and handsome. The dashing naval hero and sought-after bachelor she could boast about. And now that your accident has left you merely titled and rich you simply do not pass muster any longer. Her rejection broke your heart and spurred you into becoming a recluse...’
‘I’m warning you, Effie...’
‘And because wallowing in your own self-pity has become quite the habit, you use every little excuse which comes along to justify being a selfish, self-indulgent pain in the neck to everyone who cares about you.’ She jabbed him hard in the breastbone with her finger. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, Maximillian Aldersley. Your poor sister is beside herself and worried sick.’
‘My sister has—’
‘Your sister has done nothing but be at your side for eighteen long months. Come hell or high water. She has sacrificed her